Bottom Line: How Oregon WINS B1G in the New Pac-12 Settlement

[Charles Fischer]

Yes, we have heard from John Canzano of how the new Pac-2 will receive an whopping 255 million of current and future payments coming from the old Pac-12...without the upcoming legal liabilities.  It is an amazing theft the incompetent administrations of the ten universities approved of, and one that from any definition of "fair" is clearly not.

 

Oregon State and Washington State did not earn that revenue. 

 

The free market has shown that they have the pulling power of what they will be assembling, a Mountain West+ conference, yet they are taking proceeds as if they won multiple national championships in football and earned it all.  Astounding. Stupid-as-Hell. The height of athletic thievery. 

 

 

Never will I feel sorry for them again.

 

We also learned from Jon Wilner that the amount each of the departing Pac-12 teams will lose from this year's 35 million estimated revenue is somewhere between five and ten million for each team?  Whew!

 

So here is the spin I give myself concerning all this; the theft of 255 million or for Oregon it would be 25 million over 10 years, and I will average it out over 10 years at 2.5 million exit cost per year.

 

Add to that the 10 million dollar cost (taking worst case) for this year?  That averages out to a million a year over the next 10 years + the 2.5 million theft per year for 10 years by Oregon State over time = $3.5 million a year cost over the next ten years to leave the Pac-12.

 

So we will go from an estimated 22 million per year (Apple offer) if everything worked out, along with poor visibility, (if not being nearly invisible) to an average of 49 million a year of revenues over the next 10 years from the B1G with fantastic coverage and visibility.

 

This multi-million dollar theft is not right, but even the orange bean-counters can see that it is a good cost of doing business, as our audience and revenues will shoot through the roof. 

 

So we give up 3.5 million per year to get 27 million MORE per year, and be on FIVE television stations?

 

Sign me up. 

 

What they are doing to us is wrong, but they going to be dropping down so far in the sport food-chain, as we ascend further up on it--that I will just think of them as the road-kill they are becoming.

 

 

And I'll try not to remind them of the

final time we met before their MW+ fate. 

(Note the jersey numbers...)

[OregonDucks]

I also hope that the money set aside for litigation goes into an escrow account and that if the settlement is less then the 10 teams get a pro rata refund. 

[JabbaNoBargain]

Well congrats to OSU and WSU on “getting” startup funds to try to cobble together a mid-major conference. It’s still the original WAC no matter how they brand it.

 

This really does make me wish we hadn’t scheduled them.

[QuackAttack]

I must be the only Duck who sees how WAZZU & OSU have been injured severely in the conference realignment game. Something needs to help make them whole again.

 

I’m not even sure all of the money they’re getting is going to do that. The teams left the conference and there were consequences for leaving. Time to stop crying about the money and move on. In 10 years the look of the athletic departments is going to seem like the PAC-2 were in FCS. 
 

It’s not over with FSU’s lawsuit, college football is blowing up in an ugly way.

[Dr Hilarius]

On 12/25/2023 at 6:06 AM, QuackAttack said:

I must be the only Duck who sees how WAZZU & OSU have been injured severely in the conference realignment game.

I am with you here.

 

And contracts are contracts.

 

I’ll take @Charles Fischer’s bottom line and move on.

 

 

[Jon Joseph]

On 12/25/2023 at 9:06 AM, QuackAttack said:

I must be the only Duck who sees how WAZZU & OSU have been injured severely in the conference realignment game. Something needs to help make them whole again.

 

I’m not even sure all of the money they’re getting is going to do that. The teams left the conference and there were consequences for leaving. Time to stop crying about the money and move on. In 10 years the look of the athletic departments is going to seem like the PAC-2 were in FCS. 
 

It’s not over with FSU’s lawsuit, college football is blowing up in an ugly way.

I appreciate the sentiment but if they have been injured they have been injured by the market and their lack of market power and not by 10 partners who stuck to the partnership agreement until it concludes. Why should the Ducks and nine others pay an 'exit fee' when their grant of media rights ends?  

 

This was a cheap, disrespectful, use of a loophole to score money that these 2 did very little or nothing to earn. No way in a world of 'real business' would 10 partners who have had their pockets vacuumed by the lowest producers in the firm bend over like this. As Charles does a great job of pointing out, the graft will be 'amortized' but why not another legal filing including a federal court filing where jurisdiction would be granted as the result of plaintiffs from various states filing suit?

 

Roll over because you 'feel sorry' for partners who were left behind as a result of their contribution to terrible conference leadership, lack of investment toward winning CBB and CFB titles, and rejection from CBS, FOX, ESPN, and NBC and a low-ball offer from a streaming company trying to get its foot in the college football sports arena on the cheap. I'm not buying the sob story. Oregon and UW are supposed to take B1G money and share it with OSU and WSU. Oregon and UW are not charitable organizations. 

 

Then, after being shaken down, you surrender a home game and give the plaintiff its top revenue game of the season? Justify this by losing a road game against a G5 opponent that never should have been scheduled to begin with. This does not happen in the real world and proves once again how woeful academicians are at running a business. As for Rob, SMH.

 

Feel sorry? These two in the money ball sports have since the start of the BCS era done next to nothing to help the bottom line. Their facilities are sub-par. They are basically off the scope of the nation's sports radar. These two should be thanking larger market teams and teams that invested far more capital than these two in men's CBB and CFB for carrying them. Not playing the role of being left behind by 'traitors.' The marketplace left these two behind and no one else. 

 

We still have to live with Rob's illogical scheduling, give a home game vs. a P5 opponent for a road game vs. a little league team in a venue where your fans will be abused (only in the movies and in the world of college sports) but it is such a B1G deal escaping this nonsense, I'm not going to let thievery and stupidity get me down. However, on Christmas day I'm going to save my charity for those who deserve the same.

 

Thanks for the take Charles and this too shall pass but I don't believe that Oregon won anything here.

 

 

[Charles Fischer]

On 12/25/2023 at 6:06 AM, QuackAttack said:

I must be the only Duck who sees how WAZZU & OSU have been injured severely in the conference realignment game. Something needs to help make them whole again.

Please....read this article.  It is quite evident that THEY have been given hundreds of millions beyond their value for decades.

 

Beavers are Over-Valued, Over-Paid, Ungrateful and Unaccountable |...

FISHDUCK.COM

---

I am sick of the pretentious articles by John Canzano and other writers who portray the Beavers as the aggrieved party in the Pac-12 dissolution…

 

[MicroBurst61]

Florida State Univ. is in a position to have to pay near the same amount of money that OSU/WSU are receiving from the defunct PAC2.  Just for that one school to enable a buy out of their "contract" and move conferences.  

 

Seems unfair and "highway robbery", but remember we just get the "readers digest" version of these settlements.  Most of these obscene amounts of money we fret over is just numbers on a spreadsheet.  A lot of the "value" is interpreted and Not mountains of money, piled up in a dragons lair, guarded by Smaug.  (Oops, middle earth fandom is showing).

 

In the long run OBD have made the "investment" to remain as one of the nationally relevant programs in this new college football dynamic.  OBD is being paid half shares over other B1G members annually, which will equal to about the same amount of money they lost from the PAC12 coffers.  But much, much, more than staying with the PAC.

 

Over the course of the remainder of the B1G revenue share contract, Oregons annual "half-payments" will add up to just about the total amount currently awarded to OSU/WSU.  OBD thought it worth it and see the "value" in shortterm "value-lost", for a much more lucrative financial future while playing with the big boys.

 

A man, much wiser than I, stated this once to me.  Our current financial systems are based primarily on perceived current and future value.  Thus money is "loaned" and exchanges hands based on these perceptions.  If Every Single Debt was called tomorrow, from the poorest man to the richest Corporation / Oligarchy, the Entire worlds economy would collapse, Overnight, because of the "over inflation" of said values.  But, that is a discussion for another forum thread 

 

My main thought is.  Goodbye and good riddance.  OSU will increasingly become a "warmup game" to ready this team for the nine, or maybe soon to be ten, B1G conference games.  I would have cherished a continued, Competitive, civil war; but honestly see more and more games becoming Portland St/Hawaii type beatdowns.  Even to the point that OSU may, themselves, begin to wonder about the value of said game annually.  I feel lucky to be a fan of the team with the consistently brighter and better future.  GO DUCKS!

[Jon Joseph]

Great take Micro.

 

FSU's media deal that it signed onto willingly ends in 2036. The Pac-12 deal ends in 2024. No Pac-12 team jumped ship early and no Pac-10 teams should be paying a non-existent exit fee.

[Charles Fischer]

On 12/25/2023 at 6:06 AM, QuackAttack said:

WAZZU & OSU have been injured severely in the conference realignment game.

Injured by WHO?

 

They desperately wanted to join a Power-5 conference, and were ignored.  They were not even given a token "Stanford-Cal" offer. Thus, given the opportunity....they would have left the Pac-12 as Oregon did.  They were not abandoned, as they were trying to do what everyone else was....get a better deal and place to land.  But nobody wanted them; why?

 

Back in the 1970s....Oregon and Oregon State were in the same bad condition.  So what changed since then?  Was it Oregon putting down Oregon State?

 

No, Oregon invested in it's brand, and built a following by hiring good football coaches.  Phil did not join us until AFTER we went to the Rose Bowl on our own.  Winners want to work with winners.

 

If the Beavers have almost no brand, and a small following...which generates no interest from P-5 conferences...whose fault is THAT?  Who injured the Beavers over the decades?

 

Answer: their own inept administration; they refuse to look inward at the real reason for this final result and like you--wish to claim injury and declare Oregon as the oppressor.

 

[HappyToBeADuck]

Lots of passion brewing on this thread and previous threads concerning  the collateral damage from the death of the PAC-12

 

Each school is 1/12th equally responsible for their own demise. Rarely does the so called abused get to write their own entitlement check for imaginary damages. And take it from an equal partner. WTH?

 

Water under the bridge at this point!

 

We all have our opinions, i respect each one, so heres mine.......probably not worth the read!

 

I look(ed) at the 12 schools as a real estate investment. 12 different properties with 12 different dollar values.

 

Ask yourself which are the least valuable properties? Let's let the market answer that.......

 

Money is no object but i know I over paid for usc and ucla. I invested in the high value of the neighborhood. Even though both properties were fixer uppers, especially internally.

 

Of the 10 remaining properties, UO and UW were the jewels and i took advantage of the market and purchased them at half price. Smart investing and because of their location they will help keep expenses down for the So Cal properties.

 

Speaking about entitlement, one of my So Cal propeties has to pay a non contributing property up to $10 million a year. Year after year!  So they can play for free until 2036 with another investor. Now that investor showed some smarts. Sometimes its difficult to turn down a beggar. Wait make that 2 beggars......

 

Another investor, with a failing network partner, manipulated the market and got 4 schools on the cheap.

 

Even though the little big 12 loud mouth commissioner bragged the conference wanted west coast, pacific time zone properties, of which OSU and WSU would fit that criteria.........

 

Well, now wait for it........

 

None, none of the investors saw their value and wanted to invest in the Corvallis and WSU properties!

 

The one investor (ACC) did not even want the properties for FREE.

 

Now whos fault is that OBDF?

 

Is it Oregon's? Phil and Penny?

Stanford and Cal? The remaining PAC schools?

 

What responsibility do OSU and WSU have in this?

 

To me, when you take what is not yours, it is stealing! When you take more than you earned, its stealing!

 

Any money that OSU and WSU take, above potential liabilities is stealing.

 

Isnt it?

 

Go Ducks! Big paydays and larger audiences ahead.......

[Steven A]

The last eight to leave should have seen this coming.  That is who is a fault for the Pac pathetic, aka Pac 2, gaining control.

 

They knew that sc and ucla had forfeited board positions when they announced they were leaving.

 

Evidently, no one looked ahead to cauterizing the departure to July 1, 2024, and the end of the media rights deal in order to keep their board seats.  WHAT AN EPIC FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP!

 

Hindsight is 20/20, but the departing second wave waved their white canes as they announced their succession.

 

I guess the Larry, George, Curly and Moe mindset was too much to overcome.

[JabbaNoBargain]

Every aspect of what has happened has been greatly distorted due to OSU having two good seasons, recency bias is very real.
 

The truth is, OSU and WSU have one Rose Bowl victory between them in over 100 years of football. The one victory was just after Pearl Harbor and was played in North Carolina. They are only relevant at all because of the company they have kept. I think my recent personal tipping point with them is the fanbase attitude that they are somehow doing things “the right way” and playing off that they chose their current path, and when we come back begging to join the new pac12 they’ll turn us down. It’s just so delusional on every front… and then we feed that monster by providing their best home game of the year that they control the TV rights to, inflating their ego even more.

 

Bottom line for me, it’s annoying, but the reality is this is a starter fund and even their best case scenario is probably a rebranded WAC/MWC that doesn’t fool anyone. I think they really believe keeping the PAC name equals keeping an auto-bid, even next year.

[Steven A]

On 12/25/2023 at 11:16 AM, JabbaNoBargain said:

WAC/MWC that doesn’t fool anyone

They want to wear the Emperor's new clothes.

[DC Featherbutt]

OAC has a grueling WCC schedule to prepare for soon.

 

I say that is a mission accomplishment.

 

Over time Oregon will completely win the hearts and minds of the state, Autzen will be filled with 67500 butts, and Parker Stadium will be used for graduations and livestock shows.

 

And Ralph Miller will be that much further in the rear view mirror. 

[DuckHeart]

Ducks' ox gored; Beavers' ox gored; it's a matter of perspective.

 

I was an attorney for 40 years.  If I learned one thing is that perception of justice is in the eye of the beholder. 

 

I haven't done a deep dive in the Pac 12 to 2 debacle.  My take:  The Pac 12 was going to die.  The networks wanted it to happen.  WSU and OSU got screwed in the process, U of O and the other departing teams owed them something.  U of O and the other departing teams surely gamed planned their departure; they would have run it by advisors including high priced attorneys----the 10 knew what they were doing.   There were contracts and bylaws, rules and regulations along with financial and public relation issues.  Those 10, again being fully advised, apparently reached an agreement.  Good for them.

 

There was not theft in the legal sense.  There also weren't  thefts in ethical and moral realms.  Just a bunch of entities doing a work out of a difficult problem

 

Now, back the Merry Christmas!

 

Jerry

Edited December 25, 2023 by DuckHeart

[1Ducker1]

Im going to miss the PAC until we beat Michigan, Penn St and Ohio St- then not so much miss. GO DUCKS!!!

[Jon Sousa]

On 12/24/2023 at 5:49 PM, Charles Fischer said:

So we give up 3.5 million per year to get 27 million MORE per year, and be on FIVE television stations?

 

Sign me up. 

As you point out, the Ducks are getting a good deal. The Beavers are not. It is not their fault that everyone bailed on the PAC 12 and over 100 years of history and tradition. Everyone was mad as can be at the LA schools for leaving. Now we are mad at the Beavers and WSU for staying? Not me.

 

Call the 3.5 million a buy out... part of the cost of leaving. When Miami took our head coach, was the several million dollars they paid Oregon in buyout money something we earned? If someone takes DL away, they will pay Oregon $20 million in buyout. Would that be something we earned? No. It's just the way business works. 

 

It's nothing personal, so why make it so? "Sign me up." Everyone seems to think that going to the B1G was a good business deal. So, let's just leave it at that - my opinion. 

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Thank you for the forum that allows me to share mine.

 

 

[Charles Fischer]

On 12/26/2023 at 9:49 AM, Jon Sousa said:

It's nothing personal, so why make it so? "Sign me up."

I admit is was personal to me, as I grew up in Corvallis, and have been to MANY OSU games over the years.  To hear and read of their fans blaming Oregon for their troubles was a bit too much for me.

 

Now, after realizing it is a good business move of trading 3.5 million for 10 years for 27 million more per year, and fantastic exposure and much more gate revenues--I am much better now.

 

"Calm down, Charles."

[Charles Fischer]

On 12/26/2023 at 9:49 AM, Jon Sousa said:

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Thank you for the forum that allows me to share mine.

Amen Duck-Brother.  We can all have strong opinions and share them!  It makes for great discussion....

 

I am grateful that I can voice a strong opinion, and have people oppose it and we do not get personal with each other as they do on the other Oregon sites.  Debate is GREAT this way!